Botanical Specifications
🌿 Why Choose Palma
- ✓ Greenhouse Direct Dispatch: Dispatched directly from climate-controlled nurseries in secure root thermal packaging with moisture reserves.
- ✓ Live Arrival Guarantee: If your plant arrives dead or badly damaged, send photos within 30 days and we will refund or replace it. How it works
- ✓ Interactive Care Tools: Free lifetime access to scientific watering calculators, foot-candle light analyzers, and diagnostic care guides.
Red Prayer Plant (Maranta leuconeura var. erythroneura)
Maranta leuconeura var. erythroneura
Red herringbone veins on velvety olive leaves that fold up every evening.
About This Botanical
The red prayer plant has olive-green leaves with bright red veins running out from the midrib like a fishbone, and a lighter green blotch down the center. At night the leaves lift and fold together, then open again in the morning. That habit is where the name comes from, and it's the main thing people notice in the first week.
It grows low and wide, and the stems start to spill over the pot edge after a few months, so it looks good on a shelf or in a hanging pot. Red prayer plant care comes down to steady moisture and soft light. Strong sun bleaches the red, and letting it dry out completely crisps the leaf edges. If the tips go brown even when you water on time, try filtered or rain water, since tap-water minerals are a common cause.
Nursery-pot sizes ship in the grower's plastic pot. Choose a planter option and the plant arrives already potted in it.
Care card
- Light: Medium to bright indirect light. Strong direct sun fades the red veins.
- Water: Water when the top inch of soil is dry. Keep it lightly moist, never soggy.
- Mature size: About 12 inches tall and 12 to 18 inches wide, trailing over time.
- Pets: We don't make a pet-safety claim for this plant. Keep it out of reach of pets that like to chew leaves.
- Pest-checked: Yes. We check every plant for pests before it ships.
⚡ Quick Facts
At a Glance- • Light: Medium to bright indirect light; keep it out of hot afternoon sun.
- • Water: Water when the top inch of soil is dry. Don't let it sit in water.
- • Mature size: About 12 inches tall, spreading 12 to 18 inches as it trails.
- • Pet safety:
- • Beginner-friendly: Yes, if you keep the watering steady.
“Why do red prayer plant leaves fold up at night?”
It's a normal daily movement called nyctinasty. The leaves lie flat in daylight and lift at dusk. A plant that keeps moving is usually a healthy one.
Evidence-Based Indoor Botanical Care
Read in-depth cultivation protocols written by Nick Alan and Jenna Lee covering aroid soil physics, moss pole climbing dynamics, root rot remediation, and seasonal light acclimation.
Planters that fit this plant
Matched to the pot size of Red Prayer Plant (Maranta leuconeura var. erythroneura). Planters ship separately from live plants.
